Digital motion imaging systems are traditionally used for both passive and interactive viewing. In the former case, pre-defined image sequences are presented to a viewer by, for example, a digital television or digital cinema experience. In the latter case, choices made by the viewer affect the images presented, for example in computer gaming. Passive viewing experiences are often created by mixing pre-stored image sequences (on videotape or film, for example) to create the experiences. Live (real-time) motion image sequences are often passively viewed as part of the electronic media, for example with sporting events, news shows, and the like. In contrast, interactive viewing experiences are commonly found as part of computer gaming activities in which a computer generates a scene that is generally rendered from a database of objects describing the scene. Viewer interaction through some interface device (such as a joystick or mouse) provides additional information for suitably rendering the scene.
The integration of images from multiple sources is often found as part of image sequence viewing experiences, both passive and interactive. For example, multiple scenes are presented within a larger scene or multiple image sequence sources are viewed simultaneously on a single image-sequence viewing device. However, these image sequences are not personalized, that is they do not include real-time motion image sequences of the viewers. Commercial experience has shown, for example with the Kodak Fantasy Theater and Thrill Ride imaging systems, that personalized images have a greater appeal to many image viewers than images without personalization. Moreover, for some applications, the integration of an image of the viewer himself or herself with a computer generated image sequence adds to the enjoyment of the viewing experience, for example with group gaming activities. In these applications, the presentation of participants within the image sequences viewed adds verisimilitude and additional enjoyment to the experience. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,873, issued Dec. 1, 1987 to Breslow et al. which discloses incorporating a video still image of a viewer into an image sequence in an interactive display device. It is also known to provide interaction between multiple viewers within some imaging environments to enhance the enjoyment of viewers and improve the effectiveness of the imaging experience. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,014 issued Jun. 4, 1985 to Sitrick. The problem with these approaches is that the image of the viewer is static, thereby reducing the impact of the effect.
There is a need therefore for an improved real-time motion imaging system that provides personalization, improves communication, and does not require preparation.